After long years of decreasing economic activity, employment went up by 2.1 percent (85.3 thousand people) and so the participation rate (the number of people in active employment relative to the population between 15-74 years of age) went up from 51.7 percent to 53.1 percent. At the same time the activity-rate (the number of people in active employment relative to the entire population) grew from 40.0 to 41.0 percent.
After nine years of decrease and a year of stagnation the total labor force grew modestly in 1998 to go all the way to a remarkable, 114 thousand-strong, 3.1 percent increase in 1999 – amounting to a total of 3,811,500 people, of whom 2.69 million are in employment. Especially high is the 10 percent growth of employment in the construction industry. In the agricultural sector, however, there was a 3 percent drop and so its overall representation within the national employment structure fell to 7.1 percent. Within given groups non-physical occupation types grew faster (by 3.9 percent) than physical one (2.7 percent). Employment is expected to grow in 2000 by 1.5-2.0 percent – the highest number of new workplaces will probably be created in the industrial sector.
According to the labor force survey of the Central Statistical Institute, the number of unemployed was 284.8 thousand in 1999, 28 thousand (9 percent) less than in 1998. Thus the unemployment rate calculated by the institute fell from 7.8 to 7.0 percent and could improve some more this year. (The calculation based on labor center registrations – also shown on our graph – has a higher, 9.6 percent figure.)
This flattering average rate – which is much lower than the 8.9 percent combined average of EU countries – hides several negative trends. The number of people who have been unemployed for over a year is a very high 51.5 percent and the overall picture is not much better in the under-25 age group where unemployment was 11.4 percent in the last quarter of 1999.
